It makes me so angry when I see dead animals draped on models in magazines and they call it fashion. Real fur is unacceptable and has always made my blood boil. For years I have lamented about this barbaric trend but it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. I am not making a change by staying inactive so decided to offer an alternative. I went to Mood fabric store and picked out the most luxurious faux fur I could find to show that it is possible to have the same aesthetic without hurting any animals. Faux fur is a great way to stay stylish, warm, and animal-friendly. You only have to spend around $20-25 for this, AND you won’t have to hurt any animals to create this cozy, pretty piece that can wear all fall and winter long.Subscribe to the CRAFT Podcast in iTunes, download the m4v directly, or watch it on YouTube or Vimeo.

This is my first time using this material, so I started with a basic pattern inspired by the 1960’s-Grace-Kelly-style-wraps. This one makes me feel like Holly Golightly or Joan from Mad Men.
You can make whatever you want with this faux fur using the same needles you would for other sewing projects. If you opt for a wrap, you can print out this image of my pattern piece. Note that the pattern measures 25″ across at the middle and widest point (* to *), and 23 1/2 ” high at the middle and tallest point (** to **), as indicated on the image below. Check out the complete step-by-step tutorial over on Make: Projects.More:

Most faux fur is made from heavily processed coal, oil, and water, then dyed with crazy dangerous chemicals by people in less wealthy countries, and will take hundreds to thousands of years to biodegrade. I’m not sure it’s fair to portray it a more humane alternative.

Laura

I have to agree with Kris, and say that this post is strangely partisan. Why has the CRAFT blog become a place for the posters to push their own particular political and ethical viewpoints, devoid of context or grounding? This has happened a lot recently (c.f. the recently weirdly contextless post on providing Occupy Wall Street participants with suits and ties, which had other flaws as well). I would expect this from a personal blog, but not a blog that is supposedly representing a craft magazine and a variety of viewpoints. If you are going to have contributors push their own views, they should at least provide some context and balance. For example, this post could have been framed as providing an alternative to the use of real fur, and discuss the popularity of fur and faux fur looks in fashion right now.
Since CRAFT is no longer published, this blog is essentially the representation of the magazine now, but instead it reads like a random compendium of personal blog posts and linkrefs without any sense of curation or context. I think you need to decide what this group blog wants to be, and understand that if it continues on its current path, many of us will stop reading it.

Meg Allan Cole

This post and video was intended to do exactly that, as I said “I am not making a change by staying inactive so decided to offer an alternative. For every video I give a little context and background as to why i am making whatever project I am making that week. I was just doing the same here, giving my reasoning for being motivated to offer this alternative. It is a tricky and very sensitive subject to many, and it I thought it would be remiss of me to not give context of where I was coming from. I apologize if you are offended, but I can’t imagine referring to fur in any way without explaining where I was coming from.

crafty penguin

I like the faux fur alternative, but I’m still ok with vintage and recycled furs. They are really really warm and the one I own was given to me by my elderly neighbour as she was moving into a nursing home. It is probably more than 60 years old, why discard it now? The fur trade is cruel and inhumane, so we need to recycle our old furs and use the faux alternative.

April

“It makes me so angry when I see dead animals draped on models in magazines and they call it fashion. Real fur is unacceptable and has always made my blood boil. For years I have lamented about this barbaric trend”
This is not ” giving my reasoning for being motivated to offer this alternative.” It’s inflammatory. Plain and simple. The use of terms like ‘dead animals’ ‘made my blood boil’ and ‘barbaric trend’ is unnecessary.
I consider it irresponsible to *not* use lamb skin and cowhide. If the rest of the animal is being used for food, it it irresponsible to waste the skin. Moreover, leather is a sustainable resource, the petrol products used to make fake fur are not. I might be inclined to agree with you that using smaller animals simply for their fur is cruel and inhumane, but once you’ve made it about being angry and about dead animals, you’ve turned me off and made me angry at you.
Sometimes it’s not about what you say, it’s about how you say it.

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lisalynn

I have to say I agree. TOO many magazines & blogs are getting too PC these days . frankly I want to say . SHUT UP & CRAFT !
I was raised on a farm that was self sufficient before it was ‘cool’. we were ‘green’ by necessity & before the “green” people of today’s cities were on solid foods.
I grew up with tiny new born piglets being rushed to the warm oven in our kitchen b/c the mother was laying on them & it was too cold for them to be set in another pen alone.
I know what it is to care for animals .. they were our livelihood…… animals were never made to go hungry or thirsty & were always brought to market in the most painless way possible.
I cant stand to think of wearing animal fur , but I do have a leather coat so I guess there is no difference :-)
I agree with the gal that said You waste the skin/ leather if you don’t use it . using it is really getting back to the land & being GREEN.. :-)
the process to get fake fur to market is Horrid.
Also to author was just asking for an argument by calling names. where do they get these people ?

barb huntrods

I am a recycler, and a memory maker, I took a 50s mink stole of my grandmothers, removed the sleeves, used an old leather coat to make strips to bind raw edges, love to wear it over sweaters , for a winter retro look. I took my Mothers raccoon full length coat, made a vest, and bound the raw edges in leather from green leather pants that I grew out of. My sis, took the remaining fur, made 2 bears, such memory makers, that cost us nothing!!!!!